By STEPHEN BEALE
Union Leader Correspondent
 

GOFFSTOWN - During the chaos of the first of what ended up being two 100-year storms, Lt. Pat Sullivan remembers one constant at the Police Department: Chief Michael French.

The day the flooding began in May 2006, Sullivan began his shift at 7 in the evening. As the emergency management director for the town, French was already at the department and was still there when Sullivan’s shift ended at 7 the following morning. French had not left after 24 hours, when Sullivan resumed his next shift the following evening.

Selectman Phil D’Avanza said looked up to French for his leadership during the crisis. The moment stands out in a career that spans more than 34 years.

French will mark his last day as chief on Monday. “It’s mixed emotions, anxious to begin a chapter but also nervous about leaving something behind I’ve done continuously in one place for 34 and some odd years,’ he said.

Staff at the Police Department praised French for his dedication as chief and his commitment to the community. “Chief French is a driven individual,” Sullivan said. “But the department and the community comes first.”

In his nine years as chief, he rarely took time off, according to Denise Roberge, his secretary. When he did take personal vacations, it was often to work for the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, she said.

It was common to see him around the department during holidays, she added. For New Year’s Eve, French had a tradition of buying Chinese food for all the staff on duty, and his wife usually brought pumpkin pancakes over Thanksgiving morning, according to Roberge.

Every summer, French took one week off to work as the resident director at Camp Fatima, a facility in the Gilmanton Iron Works area for children and young adults who have physical or mental challenges.

He is also known for his involvement in the local community. “He had his hands in everything in this community,” Roberge said. “Mike French had his finger on the pulse of the community.”

In addition to membership in the Rotary Club, French was president of Goffstown Junior Baseball and served on the board of directors for Crispin’s House, an organization for youth and families, which he will now lead as interim executive director. In the fall, he would captain the pumpkin boat the Goffstown Police Association sponsored in the annual giant pumpkin regatta on the Piscataquog River.

Among his accomplishments as chief, French said he was proud that he had recruited and kept quality officers, established the Community Emergency Response Team, and brought back the K-9 program.

He has also been the point man for getting the department through the accreditation process, even before he became chief. The department was the first one in New Hampshire to be accredited, according to D’Avanza.

As a chief, Roberge said French was active in the day-to-day operations of his department and had not forgotten what it was like to be an officer on the street. “Chief French is a hands-on, cop’s cop,” she said.

When major calls came into the department, she said French often would be one of the first officers on the scene. Sullivan remembers French spending all night with him investigating a fatal accident on Wallace Road a few years ago.

During her 26 years at the department, Roberge said she had seen French rise through the ranks, after starting out as a dispatcher. “It’s hard to sum up 26 years in half an hour,” she said in an interview. “You can’t really say everything that needs to be said about this man.”

Asked what he would miss most about the Police Department, French answered in a single word: “People.”

Reproduced by the Goffstown Residents Association.